Process for rendering liquids radio-active.



UNITED STATES PATENT our-10E.

SIEGMVUND SAUBERMANN, OI" BERIIN, GEBMANY.

' PBOCESS'FOB LIQUIDS RADIO-ACTIVE.

1,236,213. No Drawing.

T all whom it may conce'rmf t e it known .that I SIEGMUNP SAUBER- MANN,a subject fiOf flie :Turkish Emperor residing at Rankestrasse, Berlin,German have invented anew and useful Process or RenderlLiquids-Radio-Active,of which the following is a specification.

It has been proposed to render liquids radio-active by treatin ample,water with an msoluble salt of radium contained in a suitable vessel. Bythis method a loss in radium occurs owing to the fact that so calledinsoluble radium salts are in fact somewhat soluble whenpermanentllywhen the excee ingly small quantities of radium employed and the veryconsiderable quantities of water treated are taken into consideration it.will be seen that the radium must gra'dually be dissolved.

According to thisinvention the liquid to bereilderedradioactive istreated beforeso located in reference thereto that the liquid enteringthe vessel comes into contact with the protective substancebeforereaching the radio-active substance.

' reader It is not necessary that the solution of the protectivesubstance should be highly concentratedbut it should be sufliciently soto prevent attack ofthe'radio-active substance.

When the liquid istreated in a suitable vessel concurrently with theradioQ-aetive subsmnm'ali w'ththe rot'eetive substance, it is 0' beslightly. more soluble than the radioacti o. :11; this case theprotective substaneefshould be present 1n compare ed with acomparative-ly-;-larlgequantity of tively lergqhuiintities, andthecontainingvessel shou purpose; For exa dbel of suflioient size for thisradium; sulfate surroundthe liquid, for ex-- in contact with water and988 it; mi f i l e of easily soluble'i'salts'radio active, that'theprotect ve substance should to contact with the radiu salt of9.110!" acid, which process comprises first 5 ing the said liquid; totheacti l 0 t" of an alkaline earth-metal witlr ;s'.\lch acid,whiclratlkaline earth metal al i lly .II .9 i barium sulfate crown withheavy-spar my small pieces; similarly, radium carbonate ii}.-

surrounded with a comparativelyllarge quail? tity of calcium carbonate.V v If a rad1o-act ve organic' substance is emf ployed a more easilysoluble organiccom 'pound of calcium, barium or the like is 6111-ployed. "For instance, -to-.pr,event radi oxalate from going intosolution, barium oxalate maybe employed. 1' In place of radium otherradio-active substances may be employed such as tho.- rium and itsdisintegration products, also actinium and its disintegration products,especially as mesothorium is physically aiid chemically identical withradium.

Example 1: I add about gr ms= 100,000 mgrs. of granulated barium sulfateto 1 mgr. of radium sulfate.

. Example 2: I add from two to threehum dred grams=200,000 or 300,000m'grs. of

calcium carbonate to 1 mgr. of radium car 5 bonate because the lattermaterial is more soluble than barium carbonate especially inwatercontaining carbonic acid. a In accordance'w'ith my invention,substances which are em loyedto prev solution of the radium sa ts,contain in sgl cases, the same anion as the radiumsalts treated, andalso contain a cathion which is very similar to radium, bothchemicallyand physically, except as to the radio-active 'properties.

What I claim is "Q 1. A process of rendering a liquid radioactive bysubjecting such- 11 uid to contact with a given radio-fictive su stamewhich process comprises firsttreatingthe liqnid' with anon-radimactive'eompound ofqi metal having most ofrithe chemical andhysical properties ofjthe. said I'lldlO flP YB s ubstance in questlon,except the rad1o-actiy1ty,-

and said compound belng materially more soluble in the said liquid thansaid radio+ active substances, and being capable of redueing the caecityof the said l quid to dis- ,s olve said-re io-active substance; andonly thereafter, bringing said,,liquid into contact with the saidradio-active substance.

-2. A process of rendering an a a ueous liquid radio-active bysulgjecting more soluble in said liquid than is the said radium compoundand 1s non-radio-actrve,

and having otherwise chemical and physical properties similar to thoseof said radium salt, and being capable of reducing the capacity of saidliquid to dissolve the said i-a-.

- prises surrounding a radio-active substance with a non-radio-activecompound having many of the chemical and physical properties of saidradio-active substance, but being more soluble in' the said liquid thanthe said radio-active substance and being non-radioactive, andthereafter bringing such structure into contact with said liquid.

4. A process of charging an aqueous liquid with radium emanation, whichconsists in subjecting said liquid first to theaction of radical, andwhich alkaline earth salt is also non radio active, r nd thereafterbringing such so-treated solvent into contact with the radium saltcontaining the same acid radical as said alkaline earth salt.

SIEGMU ND SAUBERMANN. Witnesses:

WoLoEMAn HAUPT, HENRY IIASPER.

